LAHORE: Agriculture Republic, an agricultural think tank, has called upon the Punjab government to invest in the farmers and development/import of potential seed to increase per acre yield of the cotton crop.
“Efforts by the sitting Chief Minister Punjab to visit Uzbekistan to promote agricultural cooperation between the two countries particularly in cotton crop is a welcoming step. Uzbek farmers are among the top cotton producers of the world.
Nevertheless, delegation by the provincial government should have representatives from the farmers and agricultural think tanks i.e., Agriculture Republic to make these efforts successful,” said the Co-founder of the Agriculture Republic Aamer Hayat Bhandara.
While talking to Business Recorder here on Monday, he regretted that the industrial stakeholders of cotton had never ensured that the growers get support price of Rs 8500 per maund. They had least contributed in cotton crop value-chain development starting from the seed. They should learn from the rice value chain where the main stakeholders were promoting sustainable agricultural practices, safe export quality grains and introducing measures/practices to increase per acre yield for export purposes.
Aamer said since the cotton was the focus of the government and we had seen concrete steps to increase cotton cultivation and production in Pakistan particularly in the Punjab province where the committees were formed at the divisional and district levels by the government to increase cotton cultivation and then its management for higher productivity.
These measures also reflect a serious campaign to prevent adulterated pesticides and fertilizer and set up the model centers to provide high quality inputs at discounted rates to the cotton farmer.
He said that visiting Uzbekistan by the CM of the largest agricultural province was indeed a great sign to boost the sustainable agriculture production and particularly the cotton crop in Pakistan. He claimed it was initially suggested to the government by the Agriculture Republic to focus on Uzbekistan cotton crop varieties to boost our production.
Concluding, he reiterated that there should have been a farmer from Agriculture Republic in the delegations to make the exercise a success.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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